My first pregnancy was difficult as I was sick from day one till the day I delivered. At 36 weeks, I woke up with a headache like I have never had. I called the doctor and saw him that afternoon. I was spilling protein in my urine, my BP was 220/150 and my hands were swollen. They sent me directly to the hospital and I was there for a month as my baby was very tiny. Due to fetal distress, she was delivered at 40 weeks by emerg c-section. She weighed 5 lbs, 4 oz but was fine. I continued to have bp issues but was put on meds to control it.
After losing 50 lbs my bp came down, and I got pregnant again. No issues other than at 38 weeks I started having contractions, so she was... Read More

My first (and only so far) pregnancy was "interesting" to say the least. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and was very careful to monitor my blood sugar as directed, and never had an issue with my sugar being "out of bounds" - unless I ate restaurant italian food, so I just avoided that. My blood pressure was picture perfect at every appointment.
Late in my third trimester, my daughter was big, and I was so short. I spent a lot of time in physical therapy trying to realign my pelvis which she kept moving out of whack! "Just a few more weeks" I kept saying to myself.
My 41st week mark came and went. I was starting to get restless (and a little hostile!). They ordered an ultrasound... Read More

Today I received news that a dear friend of mine Bethany who is expecting a baby boy named Hunter in November was diagnosed with severe Preeclampsia. She's 30 weeks pregnant but the baby is measuring at 25 weeks. He's not growing at a normal rate and he's having trouble receiving oxygen. Bethany was told tonight that no soon to be mother ever wants to hear she will have to give birth to her precious baby boy Hunter very prematurely they have scheduled her for a c-section this weekend. Knowing Hunter is gonna have to fight for his life outside of the womb on behalf of my friend Bethany I would like to ask for many many prayers. My heart weighs very heavy for her. Knowing what she's up... Read More

I remember looking through your stories when I was 35 weeks pregnant, and getting myself all worked up thinking my severe headache was a sign of Preeclampsia. Turns out, that was one case where Dr. Google was actually helpful. So, I thought I would add my story, in hopes that someone frantically googling symptoms finds it helpful as well.
Last year around this time I was 35 weeks pregnant. My pregnancy had been pretty textbook up until this point. I had been seeing a midwife, taking my prenatals, getting regular exercise, and gaining just the right amount of weight. My midwife used to end each appointment by saying "Everything looks beautiful, see you in a few weeks." In my third... Read More

In June 2013, we found out I was pregnant and we were ecstatic! We had no idea it would happen so fast and felt truly blessed. My pregnancy was quite typical – I experienced the usual symptoms such as morning sickness, heartburn, fatigue. Every appointment, I would walk in with a long list of questions for my doctor. As a health services researcher, I knew I should speak up and ask questions…but it was now more important than ever. The doctors and nurses all said it was normal…the doctors weren’t worried and for the most part, neither was I.... Read More

Almost a year ago I woke up in hospital to find that my baby had been born. I had, and still have, no memory the day she was born, or indeed the few days following.
I had three eclamptic seizures at 31 weeks pregnant. Hind sight is wonderful, but sometimes i do feel immense grief at the fact that none of my symptoms were picked up until it was too late.
I had had a normal and healthy pregnancy, traveled overseas and had low blood pressure throughout. At 29 weeks my blood pressure started to increase, and over the next two weeks more and more symptoms began to appear.
... Read More

Currently I'm in a hospital just being diagnosed with HELLP syndrome. It causes my kidney to stop functioning. Just worried about my condition. It's been days, but still no development... Can you help me please... What can I do to stimulate my kidneys to work again?

I had had a rough first trimester with lots of nausea, then at 15 weeks discovered my partner had been unfaithful a few years back - a really difficult time emotionally, just when I started to feel well physically. We worked through things with counseling, but I was still feeling very down a lot of the time. By 28 weeks I was having visual aural migraines every few days, which was unusual for me, but I had had them in pre-pregancy around period time and had also had one at 6 weeks. My BP was normal and I had no proteinuria so I just assumed migraines were hormonal. By 30 weeks I was feeling tired and 'spaced out' a lot, but thought was just late pregnancy... Read More

March 25th 2015 I gave birth to my beautiful daughter. She was born at 36 weeks, weighing 5 lbs and 17 1/2 inches long. Her original due date was April 16th 2015. It was the best and worst day of my life. I had a very easy pregnancy from the start. I never had morning sickness, mood swings, or high blood pressure. I had a very happy pregnancy. On March 25th 2015 I went to my regular 36 week doctor appointment. My blood pressure was 140/ 80 so my midwife went ahead and sent me over to triage at OU children's... Read More

My name is Kelly Warren and I'm from Thomas Co., Ga. I am 20 years old and I had preeclampsia during my pregnancy too. I had high blood pressure problems, swelling all over, tremendous weight gain, and protein in my urine. I was very sick. I would get dizzy from standing to long, and my feet would swell so big after standing for so long as well. Nobody in my family believed that I really was sick and didn't feel good, until I was hospitalized for 3 months before I delivered my baby boy. I fainted a few times in the hospital as I was going to get some test done for the protein count in my urine. It was the most scariest time in my life. My due date was originally... Read More

We conceived in 2011 with delivery date being 15th May 2012. I was so excited to be pregnant. I knew I was pregnant when I was on holiday in Turkey with a friend and my period had not arrived. I did not particularly feel sick. When it came to about 10 weeks in pregnancy, I was getting a lot of fatigue. I stopped traveling a big distance to my partner, he did the commute to me. He took the pets. The fatigue starting affecting the housework. I was surrounded by all undone housework. I was also losing friends, as they were getting fed up with me, as I was not meeting them in town to go for a meal, as I was either late or still at home, asleep. They were not good friends, were... Read More

I was 19 years old when I got pregnant with my son, now 2 years old. Everything was normal in the begining of my pregnancy. At 28 weeks, I noticed a lot of swelling but didn't think anything of it. At 34 weeks, I had an iron infusion and when they checked my BP it was 150/80, so after my infusion we went to my doctor. They did a stress test and checked for protein in my urine, then sent me home to take a 24hr urine test. The next morning I took the test to the hospital and went home.
That night I got a call to come to the hospital: I was going to get induced. It didn't ,so they kept me on bed rest at the hospital. After 6 days in the hospital in bed, my BP was 186/92, so they... Read More

I have learned so much reading others stories so I thought I would share mine... Two years ago I welcomed my second daughter on June 6th. The pregnancy went very well as did my pregnancy with my first. I noticed both times that my feet remained swollen. The second time though after a week after delivery they were still very swollen. I tried to alternate short walks with resting and elevating my feet. I even tried soaking them in tonic water! After 11 days I noticed a pain in my chest when I would have deep breaths or whenever I would lay on my side. I thought at first it was either because I slept wrong on... Read More

I had my daughter Arianna on March 8, 2015. My pregnancy was a tough one. I had Gestational Diabetes and had to inject insulin 3 times a day. I also had excess fluid in my body which made me develop a pretty bad carpel tunnel syndrome ( I had 4 surgeries on my carpel tunnel after Arianna was born). I was never overweight and I NEVER had high blood pressure at all throughout my whole pregnancy. I went into labor on March 7th and on March 8th I had a C-Section and my beautiful, healthy 7Lb 12 Ounce daughter was born. As every mother knows, in the hospital stay following the birth of a baby, nurses routinely come in and check your blood pressure, temperature, etc.... Read More

Hello Everyone, my name is Stephanie and I thought I would share my story with you. On March 8th 2015, I delivered a beautiful, healthy baby girl. My husband and I were over the moon in love and my son loved his baby sister from day one. I felt great and I couldn't wait to get home and show her off to my family and friends. Now, if you have had a child before, you know the nurse comes in every 20 minutes to check your blood pressure, temperature and in my case my c-section wound. Everything was great and I was sent home after 3 days. Day 1, my body went into shock when I got home from the hospital. It lasted for about an hour as my husband put 7 blankets on me and held me... Read More

It's been almost two years since I had my sweet, chunky, amazing baby girl. She was my third child, so I thought I knew what to expect. Boy, was I wrong.
I had a relatively uneventful pregnancy. I had morning sickness every waking hour until I was 17 weeks along. Around 32 weeks I started measuring a little too big in the belly so I went for an ultrasound. She was huge, albiet healthy. The Dr noted that there was an awful lot of amniotic fluid, but never made a big deal of it. Around 38 weeks I went for another ultrasound because my belly was still abnormally large. The Dr. suggested I be induced because she was so big and had so much amniotic fluid. I had never been induced... Read More

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Normal web site usageThe Preeclampsia Foundation has a firm commitment to Internet privacy. You can visit most portions of preeclampsia.org without telling us who you are and without revealing any personal information. The only information we collect from a normal web site visit is the name of your Internet Service Provider, the browser and type of machine you are using, the web site that referred you to us, the pages you request and the date and time you request them. We use this information to generate statistics and measure site activity to improve the usefulness of the site to our visitors.

Collection of personally identifiable informationThe Preeclampsia Foundation may collect names, email addresses and other personally identifiable data about visitors when such data is voluntarily submitted to preeclampsia.org. For example, our site uses forms for visitors to register or make a donation online. Contact information from these forms is used to send information about preeclampsia or Foundation activity to our visitors. Financial information is used to bill or provide receipts to visitors in connection with their donations. To ensure the security of credit card and personal information, this Web site employs industry-standard security methods, including the Secure Socket Layers (SSL) protocol for the encryption of transmitted data. The Preeclampsia Foundation goes to great lengths to protect the confidentiality and integrity of any personal information you share with us over the Internet. In instances where we may partner with medical organizations to conduct research on preeclampsia, your participation may be expressly requested, but your permission would be required prior to sharing personally identifiable data with authorized medical organizations.

The Preeclampsia Foundation makes every effort to ensure the secure collection and transmission of sensitive user information using industry accepted data collection and encryption methodologies.

Donor Privacy PolicyThe Preeclampsia Foundation does not sell or otherwise disclose user information outside the organization. We will not sell, trade or share a donor's personal information with anyone else, nor send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations.

Should you wish to review or make corrections to your personal information, please click Login/Join at the top of the page and enter your login information. A page titled "Edit Your Details" will appear in the main body of the page where you can view and make corrections. If you wish to be removed entirely from our database, please email info@preeclampsia.org.

CookiesWe do not use cookies on the majority of our website pages. The donate pages do use "per session" cookies. Per session cookies last only for the life of your current browser load and use no permanent storage on your hard drive. The use of per session cookies is very common in modern Web sites.